AutoComplete looks at Genesis' wild new design language

Genesis has been pushing the envelope when it comes to car design, but why? And how's the world taking it? That's the subject of this episode of autocomplete. And to explore the subject. I'm talking to road shows chief opinion hacker on all things automotive design, as well as our social media maven, Mr. Daniel Golson. When Genesis first spun off of Han die, it seemed less concerned with doing its own thing then with just fitting in with the stuff from Europe. Fast forward a few years and now the Koreans have gone way out into uncharted waters. The kind of Blazing new trails. Why do you think that's happening?>> I think part of it is that they're finally at the point where Genesis has its own like full line of products out. And it's not cars that had been in development as Hyundais because the second gen G80 Even was a Hyundai when it first came out before the Genesis brand actually launched. And I think that now that they're established. Okay, here's what our brand is like, here's what we want it to do. They can kind of start to have fun especially because these new cars that are coming out will have been like designed and engineered two, three, four plus years ago. So this is something that they've been working to ever since they first launched the brand. As you said, these are these are genesis specific models. mean the G 90 the Gd 80 and now the G 80. They're obviously really unique looking and they have a ton of pretty wild design touches from the giant grill to the like the side marker lights and stuff. Which of these design features Do you think stands out the most, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. What exactly do you think that the designer is trying to convey by including them because that's all stuff that you don't really see on other cars.>> I think one of my favorite things about the the gap and the gap is the super thin LED lights. I've been waiting ever since, like LD like technology started getting better and better for a brand to come out and do something that's just like super slick and minimal like this because it wasn't maybe the 90s was the last time that we could have super slim headlights. And now we're finally at a point where that can happen again. So I I really like the all the lighting elements, how it's carried through in the, I wouldn't even call them fake Fender brands like the trim on the fenders. I also think Genesis has done a really good job with the surfacing of the new cars. You have these really, really crisp, tight lines that like start at the front and go all the way to the rear of the car. There's like really interesting scalloping at the rear end, especially on the G80 like the whole trunklid is just pretty wild. I'd like that Genesis just in general is kind of pushed the envelope and And making these really standout like design centric cars. Yeah, Because I think that the segments that they're entering into have been missing that like sure we had the bangle era BMWs are pretty wild and then the Mercedes CLS comes out and that was pretty Pretty crazy and maybe the original XX. But for the most part like luxury car design has been fairly staid and has never really taken risks, at least in terms of the design language overall. So I really like that Genesis is coming in also as like a brand new brand to come in and say hey, We're going to do crazy stuff. Like we don't care. The world doesn't matter if the world might not be ready for it yet, but this is what we want, what we think luxury is and the future. One of the things that a lot of people or industry are pretty excited about you and I included I think, is the return of color to vehicle interiors. I mean forever and ever. It was like Black, beige, gray, and then maybe you'd get a red if you were lucky. But the G80 and the GV80, in particular, offer some pretty non-standard color options. Why do you think that things are kind of moving in this direction and what is your favorite color interior that Genesis currently offers? Well, this is somthing that I've actually recently talked to Some Hyundai and Genesis designers about is the use of color and interiors. And it's just a way to differentiate themselves on like one hand. It's like the GBA has this incredible Two tone forest green and like chocolatey brown interior. And no one is doing great interiors like that, that is just not a typical color or even atypical color. There's just are any other cars on the market with green. And they just see it as a way to differentiate themselves and are pulling from fashion trends and architecture trends and design trends in general to say, hey, what are the color palettes that are trendy right now and that people wanna see. And I think one thing I really appreciate about the colored interior is I know that with the gap, it's like this with the green and brown and I'm sure that the But the gap is blue and brown is the same way. When you get in these crazy color interiors of the Genesis cars, it's not like, You have green seats and a little bit of green trim on the doors and that's it. No, the entire interior is either green or brown. The steering wheel matches The plastic in the door jam is matches. All the plastic surrounds in the trunk area, the seat switches, the seatbelt little outlet buckle things are matching all the other plastics. It's just like They really spent a lot of time with attention to detail and just covered everything in color, which is really, really amazing, I think. And then and kind of touching on what you're saying about Genesis really following trends. Do you think that this design language this really kind of aggressive and bold Styling is gonna ultimately bring more people to the branch or do you feel like it's maybe more a move to just differentiate it from Mercedes, BMW's and Audi's of the world. And then, do you feel this gonna last for more than a generation. Yeah, so I think it's definitely going to bring more people to the brand, i mean we've even seen that seeing the the GB 80 at most recently like the Chicago Auto Show, it has just been absolutely swarmed by people, lots of like non auto industry people are getting very excited about. What the hell is this new car that we've never heard of that looks so cool. And I think it's definitely not just a like, well, we need to just do something to make people notice us kind of move. I think this genuinely is like what the Genesis designers Want to be putting out and thinks is what customers want right now. And I think even if this current Genesis design language with like the double headlights and the. A coupe like rear on the GED and all that kind of thing. Even if this design language doesn't last more than a generation. I think that's fine as long as they continue to do unique things. > Sure. And Genesis right now they're establishing a design language but we could see them in a few years when they're suing. Face lifts or updates or even new models start to branch off even more and do even more interesting things. That's it for this episode of roadshows autocomplete I've been Kyle Hyatt, you've been very patient, and I'd asked you to not only hit that subscribe button, and the notification buttons if you did what we're doing, but Feel free to chime in in the comments section and let us know what you'd like to hear us cover next. [MUSIC]